For professional reasons, I’ve had to approach the world of Digital Marketing, although I do not, I admit, consider it an area that particularly excites me from a technical point of view. The real satisfaction, in this area, lies in the concrete verification that a methodically thought out, designed and implemented strategy really works and generates tangible results. <\/p>\n\n
From an engineering point of view, the operational activity often consists of relatively ordinary operations: integration of third-party APIs, collection and recording of data in a database, and subsequent processing. Nothing particularly challenging or innovative for those accustomed to designing complex software architectures or distributed systems. <\/p>\n\n
However, it is important to clearly distinguish those who work seriously in Digital Marketing from those who improvise themselves as \u201cexperts\u201d or \u201cgurus.\u201d We can identify at least three categories of practitioners<\/strong> who populate the environment today, especially on platforms such as LinkedIn… <\/p>\n\n They are data-driven practitioners who are able to combine creativity and analytical rigor. They use advanced tracking tools, implement customized strategies, constantly test solutions through A\/B testing and measure each activity based on concrete KPIs. To date, many of them also skillfully integrate AI. Their work is based on a method, not on false sailor promises. <\/p>\n\n Self-proclaimed experts, often with pompous titles invented through neologisms such as Master Coach Marketing Strategist<\/em>or similar, present content devoid of any substance. They offer free webinars in which they propose a \u201cmagic method\u201d applicable indiscriminately to those who sell fruit as to those who develop software or manage complex B2B consulting. <\/p>\n\n These figures exploit persuasive techniques (attacking only with those who do not even have a clue what digital marketing really is), aggressive sales funnels with emails sent daily and sometimes multiple times in the same day, without providing any real metrics or verifiable documentation. <\/p>\n\n If you are considering adopting digital marketing strategies and are not in the business, or at any rate have never heard of them in depth, I recommend some best practices. <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n This last point deserves a separate paragraph…. <\/p>\n\n Despite all these checks and balances, the results may not necessarily come, because at the end of it all ROI also depends on the product or service you are selling. If it has no grip on the market because the market is not interested there is little you can do. <\/p>\n\n Years ago I attended, through the company I worked for, a conference organized by a well-known marketing agency. The (ticketed) event turned out to be little more than a promotional moment for the agency itself. <\/p>\n\n Small business owners took turns on stage to testify about their achievements: in some cases, \u201csuccesses\u201d quantified as 3,000 euros in monthly sales. With all possible respect for the work and vision of other entrepreneurs, it is very difficult to consider these figures an achievement for a business to brag about. <\/p>\n\n The lack of real training content left me rather perplexed and reinforced my belief that, in marketing, as in other fields, we need to be able to distinguish between professionalism and self-referential storytelling. <\/p>\n\n I am continually inundated with LinkedIn requests from people who introduce themselves, even before I have answered them a banal \u201cgood morning,\u201d promising resounding results when they don’t even know who I am, they don’t know my company and what it does in the field, and they often present me, in addition to marketing, with services in the IT field that I also offer: a hallmark of the fact that they have applied a simple copy and paste of a message to which they have probably changed only the name of the recipient, having completely glossed over verifying what my credentials and my work are. It’s basically like walking into a pork store and trying to sell the owner a pound of bologna. <\/p>\n\n Honestly today I don’t spend any more time responding to these \u201ccharlatans,\u201d but in times past I used to have fun with them by saying, Obviously the message is clearly provocative, but I am of the opinion that to absurd question one replies with an absurd answer; and of course everything deflates immediately.<\/p>\n\n At this point one wonders? Is it possible that people do not understand what digital marketing is? I mean. The term itself suggests it: take traditional marketing made up of flyers, brochures, and digitize it with search and advertising campaigns. Could you ever give reliance to someone who prints and distributes flyers and promises to increase your sales tenfold without knowing what you are in the business of and how many flyers you intend to print and distribute? Then bearing in mind the fact that closing the lead then also depends on your ability to convert them with a serious and credible presentation of the product or service you are selling. <\/p>\n\n In digital marketing, there are different types of campaigns that can be implemented, but they all basically fall into two macro-categories:<\/p>\n\n Search campaigns are part of that branch called \u201cDirect Marketing.\u201d Your site or landing page appears on search engines as a sponsored result the moment a user searches for one of the keywords you have used to define your marketing campaign. <\/p>\n\n Advertising campaigns, on the other hand, are part of that branch called \u201cIndirect Marketing.\u201d In this case, there is no interest on the part of a user in searching for a product or service online. This type of campaign can be seen as the digitization of leafleting. How many times have you happened to go to Facebook or LinkedIn and see sponsored posts selling products or services? <\/p>\n\n Certainly digital marketing has undeniable advantages: <\/p>\n\n Big brands like Google and Facebook invest in data. They store any interaction you have made with the page to create a virtual profile of you. If you’re googling or even if you’re talking about animals, it’s very likely that you’ll find personalized ads about pet gadgets, pet food. <\/p>\n\n Big brands know you perhaps better than you know yourself, and this information is gold for those who have to do a marketing campaign because they can profile it to all the users who have those specific interests. You couldn’t do that with leafleting. <\/p>\n\n In digital marketing, you can also sector by geographic location, but more importantly, the result depends heavily on the budget you decide to invest. <\/p>\n\n Distributing 10,000 leaflets has a different coverage and response than distributing a million, and underlying this difference is a different economic investment. <\/p>\n\n This is why I keep recommending that you be wary of those who come with a ready-made \u201cmagic solution\u201d<\/em> without even knowing who you are. <\/p>\n\n But let us come to the central point of this article…. <\/p>\n\n You will have realized that the proper channeling of a marketing campaign requires an approach geared toward reading and understanding data. <\/p>\n\n Well, those with a high technical-information training start from an advantageous position for several reasons: <\/p>\n\n In the age in which we live, where information and data are the real wealth but where true expertise is rare, distinguishing those who market seriously from those who build illusions is everyone’s responsibility: entrepreneurs, technicians, consultants and industry professionals. <\/p>\n\n Digital marketing is not a magic formula, nor is it a set of tools to \u201cturn on and forget.\u201d Rather, it is an ever-evolving ecosystem that requires rigor, study, adaptability and a solid technical foundation. In this context, the contribution of an engineering profile can be instrumental in turning insight into strategy, strategy into process, and process into concrete and measurable results. <\/p>\n\n My advice is very simple: before relying on the first guy who comes along and promises resounding results, ask questions, analyze the numbers and check the facts, because the first red flag is hidden right behind his promise. And if you feel uneasy about evaluating digital proposals or offerings, confront those with a technical background: it may save you time, resources and, most importantly, disillusionment. <\/p>\n\n [starbox]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For professional reasons, I’ve had to approach the world of Digital Marketing, although I do not, I admit, consider it an area that particularly excites me from a technical point of view. The real satisfaction, in this area, lies in the concrete verification that a methodically thought out, designed and implemented strategy really works and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_writerflow_disable_suggestions":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1986,1979],"tags":[1778,1779,1780,1781,1782,1783,1784,1785,1786,1787,1788,1789,1790,1791,1792,1683,1793,1794,1795,1796,1797,1798,1799,1800,1801],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-business-digital","category-marketing-business-digitale","tag-a-b-testing-en","tag-advertising-campaigns","tag-artificial-intelligence-marketing","tag-b2b-marketing","tag-conversion-funnel","tag-data-analysis-en","tag-data-driven-marketing","tag-digital-marketing-en","tag-digital-scams","tag-digital-strategies","tag-engineers-and-marketing","tag-facebook-campaigns","tag-fake-marketing-experts","tag-google-ads-campaigns","tag-kpi-tracking","tag-lead-generation-en","tag-marketing-automation","tag-marketing-consulting","tag-marketing-engineering-approach","tag-marketing-experiences","tag-marketing-for-smes","tag-marketing-guru","tag-roi-marketing-en","tag-serious-marketing","tag-user-profiling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe serious and competent professionals<\/h2>\n\n
The smoke sellers<\/h2>\n\n
How to navigate if you are not an expert in the field?<\/h2>\n\n
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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
A personal experience<\/h2>\n\n
What comes to question?<\/h2>\n\n
\u201cOkay, if you are so sure you are bringing me all these clients by painting yourself as a Master Coach Marketing Strategist, then let’s say I pay you on results achieved. If you are certain that you have this foolproof method, then it shouldn’t be a problem for you if I pay you on results achieved.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\nLet’s have clarity!<\/h2>\n\n
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Why are engineers at an advantage?<\/h2>\n\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n